The death toll from the factory building collapse in Bangladesh could reach as much as 1,400, it emerged today.

As many as 900 workers are still missing six days after the reinforced concrete of Rana Plaza in Savar, near Dhaka, crumbled around them.

Around 3,000 workers - mainly young women who made cheap clothes for the likes of Primark and Matalan - had gone to work in the eight-storey building last Wednesday morning, despite huge cracks appearing in the walls the day before.

Clearing the rubble: Rescue workers use heavy machinery to clear the wreckage of the eight-storey Rana Plaza, where the death toll is expected to leap as high as 1,400 as they discover bodies trapped inside

Grim search: Around 3,000 workers - mainly young women - had gone to work in the eight-storey building last Wednesday morning, despite huge cracks appearing in the walls the day before

The official death toll is at least 386, but that number is expected to be upgraded sharply as authorities take into account those who they believe remain trapped, dead beneath the rubble.

Police have been given 15 days to quiz the building's owner, Mohammed Sohel Rana, a leader of the ruling Awami League's youth front, who was arrested on Sunday as he tried to flee to India.

Officers from Bangladesh's elite Rapid Action Battalion seized Rana in the Bangladesh border town of Benapole. He is being held on charges of negligence, illegal construction and forcing workers to join work.

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His father, Abdul Khaleque, was also arrested on suspicion of aiding Rana to force people to work in a dangerous building.

Emergency workers hauling large concrete slabs from the scene of the catastrophe - Bangladesh's worst ever industrial accident - said today they expect to find many dead bodies when they reach the ground floor.

Hundreds of bystanders remain at the site, waiting for news of missing relatives, holding their pictures and identity cards as they watch cranes lifting sections of ceilings and floors from the rubble.

Emergency workers in hard hats used drilling and cutting machines to break up the slabs into manageable pieces.

Property tycoon Sohel Rana was arrested by Bangladesh police while apparently trying to flee the country over the collapse of the Primark garment factory

Mahmud Ali of the Bangladesh Red Crescent Society said many more bodies are believed trapped under the rubble of the building, judging by stench of decomposing flesh.

Ratna Akhtar, looking for her husband at a nearby school ground turned makeshift morgue, cried: 'Give me my husband back. At least I want to see his dead body if not alive.'

The eight storeys of the illegally constructed Rana Plaza collapsed in a heap last Wednesday, trapping thousands of workers from five garment factories inside.

The collapse was the deadliest disaster to hit Bangladesh's garment industry, which is worth £13billion a year and supplies High Street retailers throughout the West.

Bosses at high street giant Primark have said they will pay compensation to the families of their workers who were killed and injured in the accident.

The budget clothing chain occupied a floor of the eight-storey building, and some of the workers injured and killed in the incident worked for a company that supplied the brand.

Still working through the night: Emergency workers hauling large concrete slabs from the scene of the catastrophe said today they expect to find many dead bodies when they reach the ground floor

Catastrophe: The eight storeys of the illegally constructed Rana Plaza collapsed in a heap last Wednesday, trapping thousands of workers from five garment factories inside

Roughly 2,900 workers have been accounted for so far - about 2,500 survivors and the 386 dead. It is not clear how many people worked in other offices in the building which also housed a bank and many shops.

Brigadier General Ali Ahmed Khan, chief of the fire brigade at the scene, said there was now little hope of finding anyone else alive.

'Our men went inside and saw some dead bodies in the ground floor. But no one was seen alive,' he said.

In another sign no more survivors are expected, the waiting ambulances that had rushed the rescued to hospitals since the start of the disaster are now gone.

Police say as many as 900 people are still
missing in the aftermath of the collapse. This woman is one of nine
survivors who were pulled from the rubble yesterday

Hope: A survivor is carried into an ambulance while surrounded by onlookers, after being rescued from the garment factory building that collapsed Wednesday in Savar, near Dhaka, Bangladesh

Rana, the building's owner, was yesterday brought to the Dhaka Metropolitan Magistrates' Court in a bullet-proof vest, and led away to an unknown detention place after the magistrate granted a police request to hold him longer before filing formal charges.

The crimes he is accused of carry a maximum punishment of seven years. More charges could be added later.

Rana had permission to build a five-storey building but added three more floors illegally. Huge cracks had appeared in the building on April 23 but Rana told tenants it was safe to go in.

PRIMARK PROMISES COMPENSATION

Bosses at high street giant Primark have said they will pay compensation to the families of their workers involved in the Bangladesh building collapse that took the lives of 400 people.

The budget clothing chain occupied a floor of the eight-storey building, and some of the workers injured and killed in the incident worked for a company that supplied the brand.

In a statement released on its website, a Primark spokesman said: 'Primark's team in Bangladesh has been working to put in place immediate and long-term help for victims of this disaster.

'We have partnered with a local NGO to address the immediate needs of victims, including the provision of emergency food aid to families. This initiative began in Bangladesh immediately (when) the extent of the disaster became clear.

'Primark will also pay compensation to the victims of this disaster who worked for its supplier. This will include the provision of long-term aid for children who have lost parents, financial aid for those injured and payments to the families of the deceased.'

Primark said it would be 'reviewing our commitments constantly' to ensure they meet the needs of the victims, and also urged other retailers who used suppliers based in the building to offer assistance.

Ruth Tanner, campaigns and policy director at the anti-poverty charity War on Want, said: 'If UK high street chains like Primark had put in place proper measures to ensure the workers who make their clothes are safe, these deaths could have been avoided.

'While Primark has taken some responsibility, the retailer and the other companies involved must pay full compensation, including loss of earnings, sign the Bangladesh Fire and Safety Agreement and ensure such a disaster never happens again.'

A bank and some first-floor shops closed after police ordered an evacuation. But managers of the garment factories on the upper floors told workers to continue their shifts.

Police have also arrested four owners of three factories.

The death toll in last Wednesday's collapse has already surpassed a fire five months ago that killed 112 people and brought widespread pledges to improve worker-safety standards. But since then, very little has changed in Bangladesh.

'I think it is a wakeup call for the nation, a wakeup call for the industry and for the trade unions,' said Shirin Akter, president of Karmojibi Nari, a Dhaka-based group that lobbies for the rights of women at work.

Hundreds of angry workers poured into the streets in the Dhaka suburb of Ashulia and set fire to an ambulance yesterday, the Independent TV network reported. They also tried to set fire to a factory, it said.

The authorities shut down all garment factories in the Ashulia and Gazipur industrial suburbs, including one that had reportedly developed cracks and was evacuated earlier.

Bangladesh's garment industry was the third-largest in the world in 2011, after China and Italy, having grown rapidly in the past decade.

Among the garment makers in the building were Phantom Apparels, Phantom Tac, Ether Tex, New Wave Style and New Wave Bottoms. Altogether, they produced several million shirts, pants and other garments a year.

The New Wave companies, according to their website, make clothing for several major North American and European retailers.

Primark has acknowledged it was using a factory in Rana Plaza. It said in a statement yesterday that it is providing emergency aid and will pay compensation to victims who worked for its supplier.

'Primark notes the fact that its supplier shared the building with those of other retailers. We are fully aware of our responsibility. We urge these other retailers to come forward and offer assistance,' it said.

Canadian company Loblaw, which also got its Joe Fresh clothing line made in Rana Plaza, said it will ensure that victims and their families 'receive benefits now and in the future.'

Spokesman Julija Hunter said the company is still working out the details, but plans to deliver support 'in the best and most meaningful way possible.'

Wal-Mart said none of its clothing had been authorised to be made in the facility, but it is investigating whether there was any unauthorised production.